Metroid general

[TrainWreckWatcher]

Just found something interesting while searching for info on that little girl game that Retro was developing.
This is from 2024:

Somehow sounds worse than what we got. Incredible.

 

[derapples]

Finished with X-Fusion and overall I liked it
The good:
-Game has a lot of boss fights and they're all good. All Fusion bosses are here plus most of Super's and a few completely new ones. The new ones I found to be a lot of fun and all the returning ones have been revamped to be more challenging and more fun imo.
-Though the game is linear for the first 2 hours or so, the game opens up a lot after that. After a certain point Adam will tell you you need to start the auxilary power in every sector and the order you do this is very open. I watched a 100% walkthrough on youtube and he did just about everythig in a completely different order than me, this includes bosses and power ups.
-Late game item hunt is a lot of fun as most of the final pick ups are behind platforming and speedbooster puzzles, and I love speedbooster puzzles.
-SA-X is used a lot more than in base Fusion (a bit too much really) and makes it really feel like you're being hunted. And unlike the EMMI from Dread, they don't only show up in specific areas and that makes exploring a lot more tense.

The bad:
-The dificulty is extremely front loaded. The first 2 hours I was dying very fast to normal enemies and running into a SA-X without ice missles is basically a death sentence. But once you get a few key power ups the game gets a lot easier.
-Though I mostly I like the SA-X encounters, I think it's over done and some of the forced encounters can be pretty jank. It's very hard to tell if you'll be seen from by the SA-X, while sometimes they can see you through walls, sometimes you can stand right infront of them and they wont.
-The game has a habit of locking paths behind you. This made backtracking for pick ups in certain areas frustrating, since on your map the area would look unchanged but in reality you couldn't go that path and instead had to take a longer route.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

View attachment 8375041
Finished with X-Fusion and overall I liked it
The good:
-Game has a lot of boss fights and they're all good. All Fusion bosses are here plus most of Super's and a few completely new ones. The new ones I found to be a lot of fun and all the returning ones have been revamped to be more challenging and more fun imo.
-Though the game is linear for the first 2 hours or so, the game opens up a lot after that. After a certain point Adam will tell you you need to start the auxilary power in every sector and the order you do this is very open. I watched a 100% walkthrough on youtube and he did just about everythig in a completely different order than me, this includes bosses and power ups.
-Late game item hunt is a lot of fun as most of the final pick ups are behind platforming and speedbooster puzzles, and I love speedbooster puzzles.
-SA-X is used a lot more than in base Fusion (a bit too much really) and makes it really feel like you're being hunted. And unlike the EMMI from Dread, they don't only show up in specific areas and that makes exploring a lot more tense.

Ever play AM2R?

Of course, the story is the aspect that was so controversial. Well, I played the game in Japanese, and so I got a bit of different story from the English localization it seems. And my impression is that it was... fine? It was mostly inoffensive concepts with mediocre execution. Samus's English voice acting seems too monotone a lot of the time

Does the Ridley PTSD crybaby scene make any more sense in Japanese? Lol - oh shit wait, I just remembered. There's also a scene where Adam SHOOTS SAMUS IN THE BACK, Knocking Her Out In Front Of An Alien Parasite, to """"""""save her"""""""'. Save her from what? Acting too motherly in front of a biological abomination acting on instinct?

Nevermind I don't care what excuse they give that shit was fucking hilariously retarded.

 

[Retarded Weeb]

Does the Ridley PTSD crybaby scene make any more sense in Japanese?

Well I think the original voice acting is a little better (like Adam reads more clearly as concerned for Samus), but the dialogue isn't particularly different in that scene (other than how Anthony insults Ridley) so no, nothing fundamentally different about that scene.

I don't actually have that much a problem with the scene myself, but I can see why it's problematic for others from a couple different angles. For one thing, I'm pretty sure an overarching theme to Other M is supposed to be that Samus is in a bad funk after seeing the Baby die. Like the retcon of her armor magically appearing on her based on her confidence or whatever the fuck, the times she hesitates in cutscenes, and the way she regains her powers over the course of the game until she has everything again at the end when she's also feeling totally determined again, is I think all meant to tie together into that theme. So like, she would get to kicking Ridley's ass if it was a good day, but the point of Other M is that it's not a good day for Samus. It's a bad day, so she has her PTSD freakout, which leads to Anthony seemingly dying, which finally snaps her out of it. The whole thing isn't executed on all that well in either language though, making this whole "Other M is Samus having an off day due to the lasting stress from Super" idea that I think is happening rather unclear.

For a second thing, I think the scene would be easier for people to swallow if the story was in a non-interactive medium, but since it's a game where the player could be fighting stuff perfectly fine for the whole gameplay, watching Samus choke up for a bit in a cutscene has that "cutscene incompetence" feeling that people hate.

 

[derapples]

Ever play AM2R?

Played it multiple times. Always prefered it to Samus Returns

 

[LightDragonman1]

For all the faults of Other M (and yes, there are way too many to list), I'll say this. At least it tried to take a risk with the series and characters. Poorly executed yes, but at least it felt like it was attempting to branch out.

Conversely, everything about Prime 4 just screams the word "safe". Like the devs were so worried about making another Other M disaster, that they made the blandest and safest Metroid game you could possible come up with.

 

[StacticShock]

A pattern I've noticed with long time Metroid fan's reactions to Prime 4 is they will list everything wrong with the game and unrelentlessly call it dog shit but then at the end of the rant say it was "okay" and give it a 7/10. Vinny Vinesauce finshed the game a few days ago and had pretty much that exact reaction and now Nerrel is doing the same thing

jeettube recommended me another jeettuber that dissects the game in a playthrough-y way, mainly gripes.

 

[Friendly Primarina]

-The dificulty is extremely front loaded. The first 2 hours I was dying very fast to normal enemies and running into a SA-X without ice missles is basically a death sentence. But once you get a few key power ups the game gets a lot easier.

This sounds like vanilla Fusion a little bit. The first run through TRO, while not hard, can be a pretty fraught trip. At least until you get the E-tank just outside Zazabi's room. Even then you've got to get back afterwards. You can't just facetank like in Super.

Does anyone else have a weird blind spot around TRO? No matter how many times I play, I can never remember which shaft leads where and I end up wasting time. It doesn't help that the layout keeps changing. You get used to an area then the SA-X or Nattori has a tantrum and suddenly you have to use a completely different set of doors.

Spoiler: Autism

I'll stop ranting about TRO in a sec but one last thing: Why is so much of it green on the map? Usually the pink areas are "official" areas and the green rooms are like the Jeffires Tubes in Star Trek i.e. small service passageways used for maintenance, or they're parts where Samus has to bust through a wall into the station's structure where people aren't meant to go. In TRO, though, more than half the map is "hidden". Why did they make these huge, cavernous areas that people weren't meant to access?

 

[MerelyAPlateOfSpaghetti]

This sounds like vanilla Fusion a little bit. The first run through TRO, while not hard, can be a pretty fraught trip. At least until you get the E-tank just outside Zazabi's room. Even then you've got to get back afterwards. You can't just facetank like in Super.

Does anyone else have a weird blind spot around TRO? No matter how many times I play, I can never remember which shaft leads where and I end up wasting time. It doesn't help that the layout keeps changing. You get used to an area then the SA-X or Nattori has a tantrum and suddenly you have to use a completely different set of doors.

Spoiler: Autism

I'll stop ranting about TRO in a sec but one last thing: Why is so much of it green on the map? Usually the pink areas are "official" areas and the green rooms are like the Jeffires Tubes in Star Trek i.e. small service passageways used for maintenance, or they're parts where Samus has to bust through a wall into the station's structure where people aren't meant to go. In TRO, though, more than half the map is "hidden". Why did they make these huge, cavernous areas that people weren't meant to access?
View attachment 8377373

While we're at it, who tf added a "crimes" section to Nattori on https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Nettori how can you say a plant committed eco-terrorism

 

[Friendly Primarina]

While we're at it, who tf added a "crimes" section to Nattori on https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Nettori how can you say a plant committed eco-terrorism
View attachment 8377809

Well, it is an X mimicking Nettori. The X are "heartless abominations", after all.

 

[Nobunaga]

I never had a problem with the ridley ptsd, canonically this makes like what? The 7th time ridley has somehow returned? Add in the fact that THE BABY dropped dead the same week the game takes place in and daddy issues Adam showing up and i can sort of see what Sakamoto tried to do.
Still can't defend the varia suit scene though, now THAT was retarded

 

[Lone MacReady II]

Why would Samus feel ANYTHING for a genetically engineered parasite dying? Doesn't make sense. I could see how The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby The Baby might have given her something to think about, but at the end of the day it is a biological abomination acting on instinct. How mentally weak is jap Samus if she lets that get to her?

Even in Prime 3, when Samus kills Gandrayda and Gandrayda takes Samus' form as she is dying... Samus just looks away in acknowledgment of the tragic scene and clenches her fist, then she continues on with the mission. Samus should be tougher than melodramatic PTSD trips.

 

[MerelyAPlateOfSpaghetti]

That's the frustrating thing about Other M, it implies Samus has to have an emo rebound mission to process her feelings after every mission. Maybe she had a much deeper connection to the baby metroid than we realize, if her Thoha genes connected them like humans and dogs connect. I think it's actually because Other M isn't that deep and they had to drag everything out.

 

[Nobunaga]

but at the end of the day it is a biological abomination acting on instinct. How mentally weak is jap Samus if she lets that get to her?

Did you somehow miss the ending of 2 and the entire final segment of super?
Even pre retcon the jap manual states that everyone though the metroids were a bunch of dumb creatures until THE BABY showed it was intelligent and could make bonds and even be used for good before ridley/the pirates fucked it all up.
Hell, it even went against MB/it's own instincts/its programming post remake and dread retcon to save Samus, thats why you even have the dumb evil federation military group that wants to clone them in other m and fusion in the first place.

 

[StacticShock]

Samus should be tougher than melodramatic PTSD trips.

well took 68 pages for someone to get it, nintendo obviously didn't or they willingly chose not to get it.
probably out of passive aggressive spite, knowing japs.

 

[LightDragonman1]

Honestly, at this point, I wouldn't mind it if the series went back to a more story-focused approach. Just so long as it doesn't repeat the mistakes of Other M. But I'd rather it take a risk than play it safe like Prime 4.

Course, not sure if they'd allow a Japanese developer a shot at it again, when its fanbase is vehemently against any sort of anime-influence. To quote:

Anime and a lot of Japanese associated tropes gives me a lot of secondhand embarrassment, and I find a lot of it creepy and pervy. It's just straight up absurd and gross, with terrible dialogue. And a lot of that stuff is commonplace in this kind of media. That said, not all Japanese properties are bad, far from it. I have played a great deal of Japanese video games. Those like Metroid that aren’t constantly awash in weird pervy stuff are great. It’s part of why I moved away from the Fire Emblem series, most of the new games are basically waifu simulators.Honestly, I also just don’t get the appeal of much of it, or why it’s considered superior to Western or other kinds of media.

If the Western media is anything like we get now, then there's a reason for it.

Again though, I stress that I wouldn't want another Other M.

 

[Strangolapreti]

Its mesmerizing how nobody understands Samus Aran as a character anymore.

Japanese writers went from give her PTSD from encountering Ridley (again) to just make her an unresponsive mute surrounded by redditor fanboys.

Westerners had her first turned into an obedient baby obsessed retard and now really wishes she was a troon.

 

[Irrational Exuberance]

Okay, I'm going to quote my own post from a bit ago and then try to use screenshots from the translated Japanese version to put things into context. Which version? This one:

I think that there was a serious disconnect between what Japanese and Western gamers understood about Metroid's overall lore, due to a combination of incorrect/poor translation and writing and the original developers not seeming to care enough to rein things in generally...

Spoiler: Putting things into context.

First of all, the plot of Other: M can essentially be summed up with "Samus Aran has never come to terms with this:"



This one traumatic moment has stalked her throughout her life--and like all unprocessed trauma, its true nature is deliberately obscured by the subconscious mind until something triggers it (I know, shut up). Something like...



At this point, Samus is beginning to come into her own as an individual, joining the Federation Army--only to be placed in a unit of only men with a commander who for whatever reason specifically chooses to needle her at the end of every briefing:




Now, Adam is (as far as the story tells us) entirely unaware of Samus' psychological background--but as the saying goes, "Perception is reality", and Samus' perception has a dark cloud hanging over it.







"But I could not bear being called anything that made me feel like I was weak, for fear of recalling things best left forgotten." Things like...



And so, just like Adam had his own particular comment for her, she had (an unspoken) one to give right back:



I think that's a good point to end for now; I do have some more comments later.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

Did you somehow miss the ending of 2 and the entire final segment of super?

If you read what I wrote previously, I said it might give her something to think about - but it's still an Alien Parasite Created to Kill and Was Simply Acting On Instinct, Imprinting to its First Sight Like Many Creatures Do. Not an excuse for Melodrama. Samus IMMIDIATELY handed over the little shit to the Federation to be experimented on and likely Dissected in Super, did you somehow miss that? Metroids are an abomination, and post-09 jap Metroid trying to "expand" (rather twist) Samus' character into a low key Metroid simp is dumb. Even worse that they're making her into a monster akin to Metroids herself as of Dread. Onto my other thoughts...

I think Prime 4 really fucked up by not giving Samus a transparent visor. I completely blanked on it, but in the previous Prime games we the audience could literally see Samus' eyes, not just in a first person reflection, but in all the cutscenes. This really helped humanize her and reminded everyone that there's a person underneath all that metal. For some reason Prime 4's visor isn't transparent so Samus comes off as a robot. God damn did classic Retro know what they were doing... They even showed corruption spreading on Samus' face over the course of the game, the sheer attention to detail. Like I said, during the Gandrayda cutscene you can see for yourself Samus is horrified, and her right eye is fucked up from all the phazon in her system. Way more emotional than any Prime 4 cutscene.

 

[LightDragonman1]

I must say, the decision to not have you see Samus’s face through the visor in Prime 4 was honestly one of the dumbest decisions the devs could’ve made in regards to the cutscenes and the like.

Because without getting to see her expressions, it makes her come off like a completely emotionless metal block, making many of the scenes between her and the other soldiers incredible awkward to watch.